ABSTRACT

Bringing together the study of the Greek classics and Indology, Arjuna–Odysseus provides a comparative analysis of the shared heritage of the Mahābhārata and early Greek traditions presented in the texts of Homer and Hesiod.

Building on the ethnographic theories of Durkheim, Mauss, and Dumont, the volume explores the convergences and rapprochements between the Mahābhārata and the Greek texts. In exploring the networks of similarities between the two epic traditions, it also reformulates the theory of Georges Dumézil regarding Indo-European cultural comparativism. It includes a detailed comparison between journeys undertaken by the two epic heroes – Odysseus and Arjuna – and more generally, it ranges across the philosophical ideas of these cultures, and the epic traditions, metaphors, and archetypes that define the cultural ideology of ancient Greece and India.

This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of Indo-European comparativism, social and cultural anthropology, classical literature, Indology, cultural and post-colonial studies, philosophy and religion, as well as to those who love the Indian and Greek epics.

chapter |9 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|15 pages

A starting point

chapter 2|16 pages

Five relationships

chapter 3|14 pages

Homer’s simile

chapter 4|11 pages

Hero and horse

chapter 5|16 pages

Yoga

chapter 6|9 pages

Crocodiles and nymphs

chapter 7|11 pages

Monkey and dog

chapter 8|12 pages

Durgā and Athena

chapter 9|7 pages

Draupadī and Penelope

chapter 10|7 pages

Bhīṣma and Sarpedon

chapter 11|19 pages

Hesiod’s Succession Myth

chapter 12|13 pages

Five elements

chapter 13|11 pages

Rings and rotations

chapter 14|9 pages

Achilles’ shield

chapter 15|11 pages

Dumézil and Dumont

chapter 16|17 pages

Yudhiṣṭhira and Agamemnon

chapter 17|21 pages

Kauravas and suitors

chapter 18|16 pages

Hanging over abyss

chapter 19|15 pages

Gods descend to battlefield

chapter 20|20 pages

Heroes and supercategories

chapter 21|10 pages

Cyavana and Prometheus

chapter 22|14 pages

Telemachy

chapter 23|13 pages

Droṇa and Chryses

chapter 24|11 pages

AŚvatthāman and the Wooden Horse